News Analysis India

Tag: People’s Liberation Army

  • Defence News: China preparing for modern warfare – not humans, robotic soldiers, dogs to be used in combat next |

    China has been holding military exercises around Taiwan. It has also entered into skirmishes with India on multiple occasions. China’s People’s Liberation Army recently carried out a two-day large-scale military exercise surrounding Taiwan. During a recent joint military exercise with Cambodia, the PLA displayed the capabilities of its robotic dog which has been equipped to handle and shoot using high-end guns.

    The video of the robotic dog participating in the military drill has gone viral on social media. Chinese state media Global Times reported that the technical sophistication of the intelligent equipment shows that it can greatly enhance combat efficiency and reduce casualties. As per reports, countries like China, America, and other developed countries are working to develop human like robots that can be deployed in wars.

    Robot Dog Soldier

    The robotic dog weighs 15 kilograms and is equipped with a 4D super-wide-angle sensing system. As per the reports, the robotic dog has a battery and power system that allows it to operate for two to four hours. It can also perform manoeuvres such as forward and backward movement, jumping, crouching, and independently arranging movement routes to avoid obstacles to close in on its target in less time. It’s operated using a remote control and sends data to the command centre in real-time.

    Chinese PLA armed robot dogs demonstrate their capabilities in military exercises in Cambodia. https://t.co/SMU9ScixAP pic.twitter.com/OKeTwMDdlx — Clash Report (@clashreport) May 26, 2024

    During the recent drill, the robot was using QBZ-95 assault rifle. As per Chinese media reports, another bigger version of the robot dog weighs more than 50 kilograms and can conduct armed assault missions. The Global Time said, “The drills show that the PLA has been intensively testing multiple types of robot dogs in terms of technologies and tactics….Capable of accompanying troops in high-risk tasks, robot dogs can greatly enhance combat efficiency and reduce casualty.”

    Chinese PLA soldier walking with his armed robot dog. pic.twitter.com/KPsA2oL1eT

    — Clash Report (@clashreport) May 23, 2024

    The world is already witnessing the extensive use of explosive drones by Ukraine against Russia. The drones are so lethal that it doesn’t give time to soldiers or tanks to escape.

    Where does the Indian Army stand?

    Countries across the globe are increasingly using modern warfare equipment including drones and robots. The Indian Army is still behind China or the United States in this. At present, the Indian Army has been spotted only with the reconnaissance robotic dogs. However, as per reports, the army is looking to procure or develop AI-enabled tactical combat robots also called a tactical Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle (UGCV), similar to one being used by China.

  • Indian Army contingent participates in Ex Vostok-2022 in Russia, China participating

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Army contingent of the Gorkha Regiment troops on Thursday began the multilateral strategic and command Exercise Vostok – 2022 at the training grounds of the Eastern Military District of Russia which will take place from 01 to 07 September 2022.

    The US has raised concerns on the participation of other countries in the exercise.

    Indian Army in a statement said, “The Indian Army contingent comprising troops from 7/8 Gorkha Rifles had arrived at the exercise location and over the next seven days will undertake joint manoeuvres to include joint field training exercises, combat discussions, and firepower exercises.”

    The exercise is aimed at interaction and coordination amongst other participating military contingents and observers, added the Army.

    The Indian Army contingent will look forward to sharing practical aspects and putting into practice the validated drills, procedures and practice amalgamation of new technology through discussions and tactical exercises.

    The exercise is taking place at the time Russia- Ukraine enters the seventh month. The armies of the other countries include the troops of China’s People’s Liberation Army. There has been a continuing standoff between the armies of India and China since May 2020.

    Talking on Indian participation while the US raised concerns MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “India has been regularly participating in multilateral exercises in Russia, along with a number of other countries.”, and called it the Vostok exercises as routine, and added that they would only including Army contingents.

    The US White House Press Secretary had said that “the US has concerns about any country exercising with Russia while Russia wages an unprovoked brutal war against Ukraine. ”

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Army contingent of the Gorkha Regiment troops on Thursday began the multilateral strategic and command Exercise Vostok – 2022 at the training grounds of the Eastern Military District of Russia which will take place from 01 to 07 September 2022.

    The US has raised concerns on the participation of other countries in the exercise.

    Indian Army in a statement said, “The Indian Army contingent comprising troops from 7/8 Gorkha Rifles had arrived at the exercise location and over the next seven days will undertake joint manoeuvres to include joint field training exercises, combat discussions, and firepower exercises.”

    The exercise is aimed at interaction and coordination amongst other participating military contingents and observers, added the Army.

    The Indian Army contingent will look forward to sharing practical aspects and putting into practice the validated drills, procedures and practice amalgamation of new technology through discussions and tactical exercises.

    The exercise is taking place at the time Russia- Ukraine enters the seventh month. The armies of the other countries include the troops of China’s People’s Liberation Army. There has been a continuing standoff between the armies of India and China since May 2020.

    Talking on Indian participation while the US raised concerns MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “India has been regularly participating in multilateral exercises in Russia, along with a number of other countries.”, and called it the Vostok exercises as routine, and added that they would only including Army contingents.

    The US White House Press Secretary had said that “the US has concerns about any country exercising with Russia while Russia wages an unprovoked brutal war against Ukraine. ”

  • Intel fears more attacks in Manipur before elections as combing operations continue for militants

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: The People’s Liberation Army in Manipur, which was behind the recent deadly attack on the convoy of the 46 Assam Rifles, is planning to carry out more such attacks on security forces. According to latest intelligence inputs, the militants are planning to plant IEDs on the routes taken by the security forces.

    Well-placed sources in intelligence agencies also told this newspaper that a militant from the Manipur-based outfit was injured in the attack carried out last week and the exact location of the militant is being ascertained by security agencies.

    The injured militant was part of the team in the Imphal valley-based Meitei separatist group that laid the ambush. Security agencies believe he may still be in Manipur’s Churachandpur district where the attack took place on November 13.

    There is also a possibility that the militant may be somewhere in the adjoining Chin state of Myanmar. Details of his whereabouts are being verified, said a senior intelligence official. 

    Four personnel of 46 Assam Rifles, other than commanding officer Colonel Viplav Tripathi (41), his wife Anuja (36) and their six-year-old son Abeer were killed in an ambush near Sehkan village in Churachandpur district.

    The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is likely to take over the Manipur attack case, the responsibility of which was claimed by the People’s Liberation Army Manipur and another insurgent group called the Manipur Naga People’s Front (MNPF).

    Other insurgent outfits, including the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), are also suspected to be planning similar attacks on security forces in the near future.

    A separate intelligence input indicated that the PLA may target security forces in the run-up to the Assembly elections, particularly those deployed to guard the porous India-Myanmar border, including in Churachandpur, Chandel and Ukhrul.

    These militant outfits have in the past timed attacks on security forces to coincide with state elections

    The PLA Manipur was founded in September 25, 1978, by N Bisheshwar as a breakaway faction of the United National Liberation Front with the aim of Manipur’s secession from India.

    Cadres of the People’s Liberation Army and other splinter groups have continued to remain active over the years and operate mostly out of camps based in Myanmar. 

    This separatist outfit, along with other Meitei insurgent groups with similar ideologies, has never entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Indian government.

    Meanwhile, a massive manhunt mounted on Sunday in the jungles of Churachandpur in Manipur near the border with Myanmar to search for militants responsible for a deadly ambush that killed personnel and family members of the para-military Assam Rifles continued Tuesday.

    Two shadowy militant groups – People’s Liberation Army and the Manipur Naga People’s Front – which had been dormant for long had on Saturday jointly claimed responsibility for the attack.

    Sanjiv Krishnan Sood, former additional director general of BSF with long years of experience in tackling insurgency in the North East told PTI “it is surprising that these two outfits collaborated with each other and suddenly came alive again. One has to see whether there is a common factor which I suspect could be China behind this.”

    In separate dragnet operations, two militants belonging to different proscribed outfits were arrested from urban areas in Manipur’s Thoubal and Imphal East districts on Sunday.

    Acting on tip-offs, Assam Rifles personnel along with Manipur Police nabbed a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) militant in Thoubal and a Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) insurgent in Imphal East district on Sunday.

    Officials said these arrests were not related to the attack on Assam Rifles personnel in Churachandpur.

    The KCP insurgent was allegedly involved in planting an improvised explosive device (IED) in Khurai in Imphal East on Sunday.

    Besides, Col Tripathi, the Commanding Officer of Khuga Battalion of Assam Rifles, his wife Anuja and son Abeer, and Rifleman (Rfn) Shyamal Das, Rfn Suman Swargiary, Rfn RP Meena and Rfn Khatnei Konyak were killed in the deadly atack on the para-military convoy.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • 6 Manipur insurgents killed in infighting in Myanmar

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Six members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), a Manipur-based extremist group, were killed in infighting in Myanmar.

    Three others were also injured in the incident which occurred two days ago.

    Sources from an intelligence agency said the infighting took place near a camp of rebel group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang-Yung Aung) in the Sagaing region.

    The sources also said the families of three of the six slain insurgents confirmed the deaths. They were from Manipur’s Kakching and Thoubal districts. The bodies of all six were buried in Myanmar.

    The trouble was brewing in the PLA for some time as the Myanmar Army mounted pressure on the group to fight the country’s pro-democracy People’s Defence Force, the sources said.

    The slain insurgents, the sources said, decided to abjure the path of violence and join the mainstream. So, they left the camp but were soon tracked down by fellow rebels leading to a gunfight in which all of them were killed. The three injured were from among those who had gone out to trace the six deserters.

    Several militant outfits from the Northeast operate out of the soil of Myanmar. Ever since their coming together a few years ago under the banner of Western South East Asia or WESEA, they have carried out several attacks on the security forces in the Northeast. 

  • LAC standoff: Heightened PLA activity near Chamoli, forces to step up patrol

    By Express News Service
    DEHRADUN:  After reports of increased activity by China’s People’s Liberation Army near the Barahoti area of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, security forces and the state police have formulated a plan to jointly patrol and conduct surveillance in the area. 

    A joint meeting was held on Thursday after which it was decided that police chiefs of the border districts will also be included in the coordination committee for better policing of border areas in cooperation with Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Seema Sashatra Bal and other security forces.

    “Forces are being beefed up in Joshimath, Chamoli district given the heightened activities of the PLA in the region. The police will be cooperating with the ITBP, SSB and other agencies over the issue,” said a highly-placed official refusing to reveal other details. 

    The last time the PLA activities were reported in Barahoti was in August 2018. 

    This time a few locals who ventured out to the grassland with their herd of sheep and goat were confronted by PLA soldiers who tried to remove their tents forcibly. 

    A team of state administrative officials visited ground zero and talked to local residents who had reported this to the state government. 

    Barahoti happens to be Bugyal grassland of 10 km length and around 3 kms width at the border with China.

  • China deploys troops of newly raised Tibetan unit near Sikkim border

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed the first set of troops of newly raised Tibetan unit, Special Tibetan Army Unit (STAU), in the strategically important Chumbi Valley between Sikkim and Bhutan.“The PLA has deployed a new set of militia, which is known as Mimang Cheton (MC), in the Chumbi Valley under Yatung County in Tibetan Autonomous Region,” said a source. The MC consists of local Tibetan youths recruited and trained by the PLA.

    “Two batches of MC, each comprising about 100 youths, have been recruited, with the first 100 having completed their training and currently deployed at various locations in Chumbi Valley viz Yutung, Cheema, Rinchengang, PB Thang and Phari,” the source said. The second batch is currently undergoing training at Phari.

    The PLA raised the STAU keeping the locals’ adaptability, knowledge of the language and awareness of weather conditions and general terrain, with altitude ranging between 11,000 ft towards Arunachal Pradesh and nearly 18,000 ft close to Karakoram in Ladakh. It wants to exploit the locals’ familiarity with the area to its advantage by deploying these troops mostly in the bordering areas, the source said.

    Currently the unit personnel have neither uniform nor ranks. The troops of the new unit, after completing their training, are taken to Tibetan monks for their blessings. China being a communist nation, there has no such previous practice. “This is possibly a new strategy of PLA to get some mileage in Tibet region.”

    Knowledge of local language, weatherPLA raised STAU keeping the locals’ adaptability, knowledge of the language and awareness of weather conditions and general terrain, with altitude ranging between 11,000 ft towards Arunachal and nearly 18,000 ft close to Karakoram in Ladakh